Fireball

Amit gave a talk at BCB5, and it was more of a Q/A session

Read on,

1.When did you launch your blog?
I launched it when google started adsense.So, I got monetized.Traffic definitely matters, but what matters is what you know.If you get 1000 visitors a day, consider putting ads.Don’t start putting ads right from beginning, as you might piss off readers.

2.Do you have your own site?
I used blogspot at first, I recently moved to labnol.org which is driven by wordpress. It helps, because when advertisers see that blogspot, it is someone non-professional non-cs guy. If you show that you have traffic to your own site and backlinks then you don’t have to promote blogspot, or google. If you are starting new, you can start with a own domain.

3.Is google adsense only way to monetize?
They were the only company in india that gave results.Amazon doesn’t work because we don’t buy stuff online(Affliate marketing). Lots of advertisement programs like blogads, which are good.Disadvantage with google is,it never shares what percentage of revenue you are getting. But blogads give true 70%. Chitika, Widgetbox,Textlinkads will penalize your google rankings. Indian advertizing programmes like nautanki.tv have a different way of advertising. They play video and a small clip plays before that.

4.Is Adsense good enough?
Adsense rocks, frankly. They have enough inventory. Interms of revenue blogads is good, but adsense is reliable. Blogads require invitation.

5.Reblogging?
Blogosphere – people reblog. We see about X site, we write about X site, and we give link to X site. In this case, the reader may move on directly to X’s site without reading your content, which reduces the amount of time in your blog.Reblogging is nice, but write something original. I wrote about how to clean your mouse, it was a basic tip – but there are lot of people who were unaware about it – but it is new, and good. Best thing is write what you enjoy writing and not which is popular and drives traffics.

6.What do you suggest to a new starter?
If I go by technorati, there is nothing to write about new. Say digital cameras, there are 1000s of blogs about digicams.Think of something which no one writes – say lens of digital cameras.
There are lot of services – google alerts – it is a real time tracking about the recent tracking. Try to create a lot of google alerts and know about what is happening around the world

7.Rules for blogging?
There are no such defined rules, though there are some invisible policies. If some how-to is given in some X site, and if i copy paste the entire thing and paste, it is bad. It doesn’t help in the long run. You may not get healthy opinion about person if you flick contents, though you link back

8.Other than monetization?
1.Direct monetization – money
2.Indirect – You get work,contacts,network and reputation with your blog

In India – Dina Mehta,Kiruba,Gautham Ghosh and myself have taken blogging as our main portfolio. It helps us to get client also, and it pays us back.

9.Video, Audio blogging?
Keep doing unique things. But you just can’t have video blog always. For long – it wont work 75%.

Eg. Youtube doesn’t get good monetization.They had problems. Text ads didn’t work, they are trying CPM of video blog is a whole science – there is a difficult way to calculate CPM of a video/audio and is a vague thing.

10.Podcasting?
I try podcasting,videocasting. Frankly, i can’t afford much time for such less visibility. Better write text instead of making video. Lot of people use filters to get content, so these things will never come into, so we miss lot of potential. I do for interest sake, but i won’t be relying on it.

11.Content? Write blog posts to attract?
Jason Calacanis wrote an Official definition of Web3.0 – and he got links saying he wrote bullshit. It wont work, it would drive away viewers. Eg. People write that Vista sucks even they hadn’t use vista

12.How about getting button ads sponsored?
It is best to link ads and content. Engadget and Techcrunch have buttons and have clicks, but CTR rates are low. It is more for branding stuff.

13.RSS Feeds?
Feedburner might have adsense for RSS feeds. A general policy is reward your regular readers with ad-free content. Give ads for new people. So last 7 day’s of post won’t have ads, only searched contents have ads. Posting a partial text feeds is controversial topic. CEO of feedburner says that people who get full feed get maximum traffic. People scan over the content and find interesting.If it is partial – viewer gets pissed off.

14.What is your opinion about Facebook’s suggested products revenue system?
Eg.If you buy a Phillips TV and you like it, you mention it in Facebook profile, you get monetized by Phillips.

I am not sure whether it will go well.When people click on Phillips TV, and Amazon and then buy it, I may get money. But this may piss of blog readers, may work for facebook.

15.Payper post?
It all depends on what kind of readerships you have?Jay Wok – writes about paid post, his readers take it sportively, but If i start doing it, it may not work. Sponsored posts are not looked good by search engines. It is kind of link exchange programme.

16.Digg and slashdot users?
They are thick skinned – they are quite hard.You should be ready to get blasts if you are starting to digg your own posts.

17.About your Y! Search Vs. G! Search post?
They just saw that i’m praising yahoo, and not google which led to bad comments.The blog is open, but you can’t spit on me. If you do that, i’ll block you. If it is negative, i used to delete it.You can’t please all the people all the time.

18.How do you differentiate between being critisicism and negative comment? How do you draw the line.
Abusive language is always discouraged.Angry comments, are from anonymous people are also taken as negative.

19.If he had left his email?
If it is constructive criticism, it is accepted.

20.Have you added your link to digg?
I have done lot of things that i repent. I used digg,etc and now i stopped doing it, after getting experienced with blogging.

21.For a beginner, it is a very easy to get links via del.icio.us and digg, you really discourage it?
del.ico.us has no-follow so it won’t be listed in any search engine.
digg – a massive SEO site. If you submit into digg, that may get more visits than yours, and the chances of people looking at your site.

23.Social networking sites?
Facebook helps in publicizing your posts. Facebook is better than orkut, because it has a stream of activities in your friends.

Amit also answers in his forums.